That’s all the Blue Jackets did today, was two trades. They didn’t make a huge slash, but they did get a very good player in Vermette.

During Howson’s press conference he said that Vermette is someone that the Blue Jackets have been after for a while.

I love this move. Pascal Leclaire, while an outstanding goaltender is injury prone. Unfortunately for Pazzy he hasn’t been healthy while in Columbus. He won’t be able to play this season, but next season he will be great for the Senators. He sounded so excited to be going to Canada in his interview with TSN.

I’m hoping that Vermette is able to play tomorrow night against Nashville but he still has some immigration things to work out. Also with Pazzy we gave Ottawa our second round draft pick.

Vermette is a natural center, and is fifth in the league in faceoffs behind Manny Malhotra. Hitchcock has said that Vermette will be on the second line with Huselius. But, knowing Hitchcock, I’m sure he’ll toss Nash and Huselius back together at some point with Vermette in the middle.

The Jackets also traded one of our fourth round draft picks (we also have the Avs pick) to Calgary for Kevin Lelande. It was a good move, and we needed to fix our goaltender depth. Once Pazzy left we had Mason, Dubie, LaCosta, and Dahm. Lelande has a 1.94 GAA and .929 save % in six games in the AHL this season.

I am pretty happy with the deadline day, we didn’t sell the farm. We got rid of Leclaire, and gained a guy who is a twenty-goal scorer and well, if he doesn’t work out, he only has one year left on his contract.

Howson wanted to add someone who would help us make that final push to keep us in a playoff position and he did that. We weren’t looking for a rental, which is why he would not go after Antropov.

Here’s some player quotes on the acquiring Vermette all courtesy of Puck-Rakers:

Commodore:

“He’s a good player. He can skate, he’s good on the power play, he’s good killing penalties. I like him and he’s very easy to get along with. I’m looking forward to seeing him and he should be a good fit.”

Nash:

“Yeah, I think it’s a good move. A team does not want to have two No. 1 goalies, with one sitting on the bench. In order to improve our team, I think this is a good move, it’s not one that it going to stir up the dressing room. We’ve got a good tight group.”

Pazzy will definitely be missed, but this was the best move for this organization. I’m pretty excited for this playoff push. More tomorrow, or tonight depending on if I can this fever to go away.